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LAFAYELTTE, 
IN AMERICA. 




♦ "^^ '^ By »|f "k ?J? 
the Honorable JbhiyD.Lony 
Ex-Secretaxy of the Navy 















The YOUTH'S 
Companion, 
Boston, Mass. 



Lafayette in America. 

From The Youth's Companion, July 3, 1902. 

The American Revolution is the romance of our national 
youth, always fresh with the charm of poetry and story, and 
woven into the traditions of the people. Its battles were 
insignificant in the numbers engaged and the blood spilled ; 
its victories were pitifully few ; its blunders and jealousies 
and failures were innumerable. But in its entirety it was 
the glorious, patriotic outburst of the spirit of national inde- 
pendence in an intelligent and self-respecting people. 

In its persistence, its territorial range, the odds it overcame 
and the results it achieved, it was the best and most prolific 
effort of the century — the birth of a new nation, springing 
quickly toward first rank, and inspiring the liberalizing 
revolution of European states and the larger political 
enfranchisement of mankind. 

I never tire of the story. The farmers who, with equal 
vigor, argued all day in town meeting for a new hinge for the 
meeting-house door, or shouldered their muskets and risked 
their lives and fortunes to maintain the birthright of freedom ; 
the minutemen who rose in the early morning of April 19th 
to "do chores," but before daybreak were gathering on 
Lexington Common, proclaiming that the whole British 
Empire was only a feather's weight against the cause of one 
Middlesex 3^eoman, taxed without his consent ; the Maryland 
regiments and the Delaware line that came to such splendid 
discipline and valor in battle ; and those devoted Southern 
soldiers under Pickens and Marion and Sumter, who, while 
their part of the country suffered more than any other from 
the ravages of the war, fought the British legions until they 
drove them to the sea — of these men and their comrades I never 
weary of hearing. Especially is it interesting to remember 



4 LAFAYETTE IN AMERICA. 

that what we are apt to regard as the patriarchal character 
of the heroes of the Revolution was really the ardor, the fire, 
the 'dash of young men, brave, gallant and enthusiastic. 

Washington, towering like a mountain crest in the sunrise, 
and most familiar to our eyes in the venerable picture by 
Stuart, was but forty-three when made commander-in-chief, 
in the pith and vigor of his ripening manhood ; Greene, who 
redeemed the South and out of constant defeat plucked the 
glory of victory, was only thirty-three in 1775 ; Arnold, hero 
of Lake Champlain and Saratoga, and until his foul, unpar- 
donable treason our most efficient and enterprising brigadier, 
was thirty-four ; Wayne, the " Mad Anthony," always in the 
thickest of the fight, was thirty; Morgan, the unsurpassed 
fighter, was thirty-nine ; Knox, a Boston bookseller, who rose 
to the chieftainship of artillery, was barely twenty-five ; 
Sullivan was thirty-five; "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, the 
dashing cavalry leader, father of the great Confederate 
general, Robert E. Lee, was nineteen, just out of Princeton 
College ; John Jay was thirty ; Jefferson, thirty-two ; John 
Adams, the Colossus, forty ; Hamilton, the aide-de-camp and 
bosom friend of Washington, who, even before the war ended, 
conceived the scheme of our constitutional government and 
financial system, and afterward embodied them in our national 
fabric, was only eighteen. 

These men, and many more, gave their very youth, gave 
all. Many of them became bankrupt. Greene, second to 
Washington, died trying after the war to redeem his fortunes 
in the South, for which he had fought so well. 

There was little cause for encouragement at first. The 
battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill were fought with inde- 
cisive results. Arnold's expedition to Canada, more heroic 
and trying than Xenophon's march, suffered inexpressible 
hardships in the head waters of the Kennebec and Chaudiere. 
Made up of the best young men in Washington's army from 
Virginia, Pennsylvania and New England, star\'ed and frozen 
and reduced in numbers, it was mjserably defeated under the 



LAFAYETTE IN AMERICA. 



walls of Quebec, although Arnold and Morgan and Aaron 
Burr and every man remaining fought with courage worthy 
of success. 

Boston was indeed vacated by the British as a measure of 




military discretion, but New York was impregnable in their 
hands. The ill-disciplined army of Washington was rapidly 
shattered and routed at Long Island. The provincial militia 
were disbanding and returning to their homes ; the royalists 



6 LAFAYETTE IN AMERICA. 

were exultant ; captivating offers of amnesty by I/Ord Howe 
were causing many Americans to waver. The darkest hour 
of the Revolution had come, when the youngest of all the 
heroes, a boy only seventeen when lycxington Common was 
dyed with patriot blood, landed in South Carolina, near 
Charleston, in June, 1777, to give his fortune and, if need be, 
his life to the cause of American freedom. 

This was Lafayette. An aristocrat of noble blood and 
great wealth, a favorite at court, a recent husband, and hold- 
ing command in the roj^al army, he risked all for what was 
almost a hopeless endeavor. Fitting out a vessel at his own 
cost, he embarked on her from a Spanish port. Against the 
advice of friends and the command of his sovereign, he sailed 
to our aid. 

It is doubtful whether our independence could have been 
achieved without the material and moral aid of European 
powers. They no doubt were actuated more or less by the 
selfish consideration of humbling a powerful rival. Indeed, 
the spirit of our Revolution was in direct opposition to the 
restraint and absolutism in which their own authority rested. 

France spent millions in men and fleets that saved us, but 
in so doing increased those exactions upon her own people 
and encouraged among them those notions of freedom and 
license which afterward culminated in her own bloody revo- 
lution and her ultimate republicanism. 

Our final success was due to many elements : to our terri- 
torial extent and the impossibility of the enemy's controlling 
or holding more than a narrow line of seaboard ; to our 
spirit of independence and unconquerable determination ; to 
the moral popular sentiment of Germany, Russia and Holland, 
which began to flow out to us after the first few years of the 
war ; to the abundant money, arms, men and ships of France ; 
and not least to the moral aid of ho.sts of Englishmen whose 
sympathies were with us, — Chatham, Camden, Fox, Burke, 
Conway, Barry and many others, — who spoke brave words 
for us in the British Parliament. 



LAFAYETTE IN AMERICA. 7 

We owe a debt to England herself for our independence 
from England. If the moral and physical force of Great 
Britain had been unanimously concentrated against us we 
could not have resisted it. 




LAF-A.YETTE 

AT THE TIHB OF HIS LAST VISIT 



In addition to all these forces we owe our independence 
also not a little to the personal aid of individual foreigners, 
some of them no doubt knights errant looking for glory and 
gain; but many — De Kalb, Steuben, Pulaski, Kosciusko, 



8 LAFAYETTE IN AMERICA. 

and especiall}' Lafayette — inspired by an ardent love of 
liberty for its own sake. It is not easy to estimate how much 
these examples, reviving the enthusiasm of the crusaders and 
the epochs of romance and chivalry, gave charm to our 
banner, and won for it the smiles of the world's favor. 
Lafayette was accompanied by De Kalb, who fell three years 
later on the bloody field of Camden. At midnight, under 
the summer stars, they landed on the beach in South Carolina. 

Lafayette was received with an enthusiastic welcome. The 
equality of the people, their simple habits and their inartifi- 
cial relations and modes of life delighted him. It was a long 
journe}' overland by carriage and then on horseback, by 
winding and picturesque roads, with stays and inns and 
country residences, to Philadelphia, where Congress was then 
in session. Here he had a disappointment. Silas Deane, 
an old-fashioned politician, our commissioner in Paris, had 
promised him, as he did everybody else, a major-generalship ; 
but Congress, now wearied with the importunities of adven- 
turers, was not inclined to recognize Lafayette's claims. 

True to his chivalrous quest he wrote at once : " After the 
sacrifices I have made, I have a right to exact two favors : 
one is to serve at m)^ own expense, the other is to serve as a 
volunteer." 

Congress gave him a major-general's commission, without, 
however, a command. It was then — in August, 1777 — that 
Lafayette first met Washington, and their loyal and enduring 
friendship began. Lafayette was made the aid of the 
American commander-in-chief and an inmate of his famih'. 

He soon had a fighting chance at the Battle of Brandy wine. 
It was a small affair but a brave fight. As was so often the 
case, numbers, discipline and, shall we say, generalship were 
on the side of the enemy. Lafayette left the staff and served 
with the ranks in the hottest of the battle even after struck 
by a musket-ball. Philadelphia was lost and Congress fled. 

Nothing was more significant of the determination of the 
patriots than the heroism with which they endured year after 



LAFAYETTE IN AMERICA. 9 

year this ignominy of defeat, this humiliation of long waiting 
and then disaster, these seemingly wasted campaigns. 

Lafayette, after remaining long enough with the Moravians 
at Bethlehem to recover from his wound, joined General 
Greene as a volunteer in an expedition to New Jersey, and 
Congress then gave him command of an active division of the 
army. The campaign of 1777 was at an end. The army 
retired to the sad and pitiful winter encampment at Valley 
Forge, historic with the blood-stained footprints of the soldiers 
and their want and hunger. 

Lafayette shared all privations. Here he daih' cemented 
his intimacy with Washington, and, amid the miserable 
intrigues to undermine that noble leader, was devoted to him. 
Here, too, he wrote to France, frequently and urgently recom- 
mending- the acknowledgment of American independence. 

The year 1778 opened not inauspiciously. More efficient 
discipline had been introduced into the army, which was 
thenceforward in its regular regiments an army of veterans 
with the steadiness of trained soldiers. In February France 
acknowledged our independence. In Ma}' Lafayette was in 
command of some two thousand men as an advanced guard 
half-way to Philadelphia. In the summer the British vacated 
that cit}', and Washington was immediately up and at them 
on their retreat. 

He made a fierce attack at the Battle of Monmouth, which, 
by one of those too frequent mishaps that so often plucked 
the flower of success from his outstretched hand, while it 
should have been a victory, resulted indecisively. 

It was on the eve of this battle that Gen. Charles Lee, the 
crookedest of sticks, gave up his command ; and then, when 
he saw it was given to Lafayette with orders to attack, 
begged to reassume it. Lafaj-ette gracefully yielded, and 
Lee, under strict command from Washington to fight and hold 
his ground, at early morning fell on the enemy, Washington 
pushing forward with the reserve. 

To us it is a dramatic scene — Washington, the noblest 



lO LAFAYETTE IN AMERICA. 

rider in the army, in full glory of manhood and physical 
strength, ardently advancing with certain hope. To his utter 
consternation he overtakes not his battling soldiers, but is 
met by fugitives, who tell him that Lee, perhaps not unwill- 
ing to hinder success where in the obstinacy of opinion he 
had predicted defeat, had ordered a retreat. 

Washington, in towering but pardonable passion, demanded 
the reason for such a shameful turn. Boldly mounted, and 
with drawn sword flashing the way, like Sheridan at Win- 
chester, he turned the tide of battle; his troops followed 
their leader. Forward went Lee, stung with shame ; for- 
ward went Sterling and Wayne and Knox and Lafayette ; 
and in spite of the morning disaster, they sustained the 
conflict in the terrific heat of that summer day and the 
unequal balance of the fight, until night ended the battle 
and the combatants rested. 

Washington and Lafayette lay upon the field under the 
same cloak. One loves to fancy their conversation over the 
day's events, their plans for the renewed attack at dawn, 
the confidence of the chieftain, the responsive sympathy of 
the enthusiastic Frenchman, the sleep of tired heroes. When 
morning came the enemy had abandoned the field and fled. 

In July the French fleet under D'Estaing arrived, and the 
expedition against the British forces at Newport, Rhode 
Island, was planned, D'Estaing attacking by sea and Sullivan 
by land. Lafayette was ordered to a command under the 
latter, but storms scattered the fleet, and Sullivan was com- 
pelled to retire, Lafayette finding no other occupation than 
that of reconciling the dissensions which began to arise 
between the French and the Americans. To his effort is due 
something of the harmony which afterward existed between 
the two cooperating armies, and which insured their final 
SAipcess. 

"Kin January, 1779, Lafayette sailed from Boston to France. 
The slight coolness with which, for his disobedience two 
years before, he was received at court quickly melted in the 



LAFAYETTE IN AMERICA. I I 

sunshine of royal favor. His fame spread and he was a hero. 
He solicited vessels, men and money for America, and wrote 
generous words of cheer to his comrades there. It was said 
that he would have sold the furniture of the royal palace to 
aid them. 

Count de Rochambeau was ordered to America with ships 
of the line, six or seven thousand men, artillery and clothing 
and other supplies, and the troops were ordered to serve as 
auxiliaries under Washington. Lafayette, preceding them, 
returned hither with the welcome news of their coming. 
Arriving in Boston April 27, 1780, Governor Hancock 
received him and the people welcomed him. He reported 
quickly to Washington, and Congress reinstated him in his 
command. 

It was a corps of light infantry of two thousand men, fine 
fellows, but destitute of clothing, which he at his own expense 
supplied. He was one of the board before whom Andr^ was 
tried and convicted as a spy. He was one of the commissioners 
who treated with and pacified the Pennsylvania line when, 
worn with privations, starving, unclothed, unpaid and unable 
longer to endure the neglect of Congress, they mutinied. In 
camp and council, in embassy and correspondence, in march 
and in battle, in going from one colony to another to raise 
supplies and money, and by his example and enthusiasm, he 
did constant service. 

His most brilliant military exploit was in 1781, when in 
Virginia and in independent command he attempted, in con- 
junction with the French fleet, to surprise the traitor Arnold, 
who with a division of British troops was ravaging that State. 
The French fleet, however, was not on time, and the enter- 
prise was fruitless. 

He was then ordered to join General Greene in the Caro- 
linas. His troops, veterans of Northern fields, at first refused 
to expose themselves to the Southern climate ; desertions 
began, but such was his appeal to them that they rallied 
about him and followed him. At Baltimore he loaned his own 



12 LAFAYETTE IN AMERICA. 

personal credit for ten thousand dollars, to furnish them with 
hats, shoes, shirts and overalls, in making which the women 
of Baltimore gave their needles. 

Cornwallis, entering Virginia from the south, pressed Lafay- 
ette with twice his force, exclaiming, "The boy cannot 
escape me! " But the "boy" eluded his pursuer, and his 
versatility and prudence in this campaign won him great 
reputation. 

Yorktown is the crowning glorj- of Washington's military 
career. For j^ears he had patiently held his post in the high- 
lands of New York and in the Jerseys, waiting to attack Sir 
Henry Clinton in New York and retake that city. Clinton 
had ordered Cornwallis in the South to detach a part of his 
force to protect New York. Washington saw the golden 
opportunity. He had just been reenforced by all the French 
soldiers from Newport. France had agreed to furnish one 
loan, and another was negotiating with Holland. A French 
fleet was on its way to Chesapeake Bay. Cooperating with 
it, Washington began his joyous march, the French and 
American soldiers side by side, concealing as much as pos- 
sible his ultimate design, which was to surround and capture 
Cornwallis, with his still powerful force, in Virginia. 

The latter had entrenched himself heavily at Yorktown. 
Lafayette in the South, familiar with Washington's plans, 
cut off Cornwallis from the Carolinas. Uniting with Wash- 
ington, their soldiers surrounded the British by land, while 
the French fleet shut them in from the sea. The game was 
in the net. 

On October 6, 1781, Washington opened his trenches 
within six hundred yards of the British line, the Americans 
on the right, the French on the left. It was like the climax 
of the last act of a great drama. Two redoubts of the enemy 
were ordered by Washington to be carried by the baj'onet, 
the Americans attacking one, the French the other, — the 
former under Lafayette, Alexander Hamilton leading the 
van, — all emulous with the generous enthusiasm of national 



LAFAYETTE IN AMERICA. 13 

pride, carrying the redoubts like a whirlwind. On the 19th 
came the surrender, the end of the war and the consummation 
of independence. 

Lafayette, his name unspotted, his fame fair, warm in the 
hearts of the people, set sail for France on December 22d. 
Peace came in January, 1783. In response to the warmest 
invitations, Lafayette returned in July, 1784, landing in New 
York, and going thence to Philadelphia and Baltimore, 
everywhere meeting old comrades, his whole pathway filled 
with applause. 

At Mount Vernon Washington, retired to private life, 
renewed with him for many days the associations of the past. 
It is not the least evidence of the greatness of Washington 
that this favorite pupil in all his after career was inspired by 
his great example. 

Lafayette's journey now turned northward to Boston, which 
received him with its proverbial hospitality. With General 
Knox at the head of the table, he sat with many of the officers 
of the army at a banquet, where no doubt these veterans 
fought their battles over again. 

After an extended trip along the coast, revisiting Yorktown 
and again lingering at Mount Vernon to part forever from 
Washington, he received the final adieu and thanks of Con- 
gress at Trenton, and left our shores December 25, 1784. 

It is not the purpose of this article to dwell upon Lafayette's 
career in France. On his return thither, full of the spirit of 
freedom, he was active in efforts for the emancipation of 
slaves, liberating his own, corresponding with Washington. 
For a time he was perhaps the most notable figure in the 
dramatic events which culminated in the French Revolution. 
He was a member of the National Assembly of 1789, in which 
he brought forward a declaration of rights. He was com- 
mander-in-chief of the National Guards. He favored the 
abolition of titles of nobilit3^ and aided in the adoption of a 
wise and liberal constitution. 

The storm, however, was not to be laid b}' a written 



14 LAFAYETTE IN AMERICA. 

parchment. The Red Terror was master. Lafayette, in 
command of the military forces in the north of France, saved 
his head from the guillotine by flight to the Netherlands. 

Then came the saddest reverse of fickle fortune. Captured 
by the Austrians, imprisoned at Olmiitz, he suffered the 
indignities of a dungeon. Washington personally addressed 
the Emperor of Austria in his behalf. In the British Par- 
liament even his old adversaries in the American campaigns 
lifted their voices for him. Romance intervened. A young 
American, son of that Colonel Huger at whose house Lafay- 
ette spent his first night after landing in South Carolina, and 
a young German doctor planned and half-accomplished his 
escape. 

But he was recaptured and subjected to even greater sever- 
ities in his imprisonment. It was reserved for a mightier 
power, the boy Bonaparte, scattering the hosts of Austria 
and snatching her Italian provinces like playthings, to restore 
Lafayette to liberty after more than five years' imprisonment. 

Lafayette retired to his family estate, and for nearly twenty 
years, until 1814, lived there quietly. His son, named 
George Washington, had recently returned from living in 
Washington's famil3^ Lafayette declined a peerage or any 
position under Napoleon. 

In 1824 he carried out his long-cherished purpose of 
revisiting America. He sailed from Havre July 13th, accom- 
panied by his son, George Washington, to spend a year in 
the republic he had helped to found. His eyes fell on teem- 
ing States where he had left a narrow seaboard line of strug- 
gling colonies. New York welcomed him with the wildest 
acclamations. 

During the year he went all over the country, through the 
West and South, greeted with affection ; gazing on new 
commonwealths sprung out of the wilderness ; witnessing the 
exciting presidential contest between Adams, Jackson, Clay 
and Crawford ; admiring the order of our political system 
that rocked in the storm of an election, but rode all taut and 



LAFAYETTE IN AMERICA. I5 

strong ; and, fresh from the failure of the French Republic, 
admiring the success of our constitutional system. 

Congress welcomed him in the stirring words of Clay, who 
pictured him as a sainted patriot visiting the scene of his 
earthly labors and witnessing the fruits of his sacrifices in the 
felicity and increase of the land. President John Quincy 
Adams addressed him in the words of the florid eloquence of 
that day, saying that "If in future days a Frenchman shall 
be called on to indicate the character of his nation by that of 
one individual, the blood of lofty patriotism shall mantle in 
his cheek, the fire of conscious virtue shall sparkle in his eye, 
and he shall pronounce the name of Lafayette. " 

He visited the tomb of Washington and, descending into 
the vault alone, lingered in silent communion with the dead. 
On June 17, 1825, he laid the corner-stone of the monument 
at Bunker Hill, tlie only present surviving staff-ofiicer of the 
army of the Revolution. He, the founder of the nation, heard 
the famous address of Daniel Webster, its matchless consti- 
tutional defender. 

In September, 1825, he left our shores. In 1830 he was 
again called to the head of the National Guard of France, 
and in the public clamor for the republic might possibly have 
been made its president. On May 20, 1834, at seventy-seven 
years of age, full of honor, " the man of two worlds," he died. 

His name will always be associated with the romance of 
the American Revolution and the birth of our nation. His 
name has always a charm for the American ear. We erect 
his statue ; we have named our cities and our children for 
him ; we associate him with Washington. He is our historic 
ideal of modern chivalrousness. In the choir of the morning 
stars of the republic he is one of the brightest. 



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LAFAYELTTE. 
IN AMERICA. 




•?? <^Sf # ^ -i* -If ?«? 
^e Honorable SohiyD.Loru^ 
Ex-Secretary o^ theNa;^ 



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